Intercontinental Championship Match Made Official For WrestleMania 39

After several weeks of uncertainty, the field for the Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania has now been fully set, with GUNTHER defending the gold against both Sheamus and Drew McIntyre in a triple threat match, as announced on the March 17 edition of Friday Night SmackDown.

Both McIntyre and Sheamus had previously stated their ambitions to win the gold, and they followed this up by scoring simultaneous pinfalls in a number one contender fatal 5-way match. This set up a singles match on SmackDown in which the challenger for GUNTHER would finally be revealed. However, the Intercontinental Champion sent his Imperium lackeys to the ring to cause a no contest.

Although GUNTHER had stated that he only wanted one challenger at WrestleMania, Adam Pearce officially announced that due to the no contest, both McIntyre and Sheamus would earn a shot at the gold in a triple threat match. This was the expected outcome, but it has taken a few weeks to get there.